Dallas Stars Blog

Replay: Scrambles at net pay off for Stars in second period

1. Kari Lehtonen, Stars: Kept Stars in a tough game with some nice saves

2. Vernon Fiddler, Stars: Assist and went 13-4 in faceoff circle

3. Sheldon Souray, Stars: Blocked three shots and finished plus-2.

Game highlights

First period: Neither team scored in a grinding period. Edmonton led in shots on goal, 7-4. Ryan Garbutt had two of the four Stars shots. Hits were 6-6. The Stars led in faceoff wins, 11-10.

Stars 0, Oilers 0

Second period: The Stars did not get their first shot on goal of the period until the 8:18 mark, and it was simply a hard angle from the left wing by Vernon Fiddler. But then they scored twice on scrambles at the net. Radek Dvorak got his fourth goal at 8:35 after linemates Fiddler and Eric Nystrom worked the puck to the front of the net. Then, Dallas broke into the offensive zone in transition, and Philip Larsen bobbled a puck off the end boards. Garbutt drove to the net, and Oilers defenseman Corey Potter knocked his own goalie out of the way, leaving Tomas Vincour alone in front for an easy tap-in.

Stars 2, Edmonton 0

Third period: The Stars ground out an ugly victory, and Michael Ryder scored an unassisted, empty-net goal with 1:28 remaining. It was his team-leading 27th goal. However, the Oilers broke up Kari Lehtonen’s shutout with 29.4 seconds remaining, as Ales Hemsky found Sam Gagner open with a pretty cross-ice pass.